Jac In The House

Jac’s here! 

Pop picked Marie, Leo and Jac up from the airport Saturday evening, then took Marie and Leo* back Monday night. 

Jac’s staying for about 5 weeks and we’ve already started partying. 

We’ve done art, talked, played computer games, listened to Jac talk, watered outdoor plants, caught a lizard(!) and talked a bunch more. 

We have plans for Jac’s birthday on Sunday, are visiting the Queen Mary and Long Beach Aquarium Wednesday and Thursday, then the Santa Barbara Zoo the following week. That leaves 3 more weeks to fill with FUN. 

I thought this was the first lizard Jac had caught but look what popped up in my Facebook memories from the same day in 2023. She’s a lizard wrangler! So funny. 

* Bad grandma - I didn’t get a single picture over the weekend, and Pop forgot to take any when he took the girls to the beach on Monday. Oops!

One, Two, Three

One…

Two…

Three!

21.75 x 21.75”

Except for yesterday’s fabric chicken drama, this Red-Shouldered Hawk went together surprisingly easily. I really like the ‘chaos’ of the feathers, especially since it meant there were very few seams that needed to match up. 

The patterns for the last two birds are cut, folded, color-coded and ready to sew. We’re almost done!

Fabric Chicken

Fabric Chicken: will a piece of fabric (it’s from the stash, there is no more…) cover all the pattern pieces or will it run out with inches to go. 

The upside of adding stash fabrics to Birdwatcher patterns is more texture and interest - the kit’s solid colors are pretty but kinda flat. The downside? When it’s gone you sure better have a Plan B! 

We’ll call this one a draw win since there were enough tiny scraps to sew together to make it work. 

 That’s all, folks!

But it was so, so close!

Red-Shouldered Hawk wing

One of my air plants flowered! 

I’ve never seen one bloom before. I wonder if the flowers open one at a time or if multiple can open at once. 

There's lots of buds so hopefully I’ll find out soon. 

Whose Eye?

Only 4 pieces left to make on the 3rd from last Birdwatchers bird. Can you tell which one it is?

They all pretty much look alike at this ⬆️ point. Hoping to attach fabric to the last four pattern pieces tonight and sew (or at least start sewing) it together tomorrow. 

More Winter Wonderland

We’re getting so close to the finish line.

This is #14, “Joy Quilt Block” by Center Street Quilts (here). Love her designs! 

We needed to do mathing to get the right size, decreasing from the 12” pattern to our 8” block. Somewhere along the way, Teena’s printer decided to do its own thing and… yeah, hers didn’t fit together like it was supposed to. Such a bummer. 

I’m still thinking I’ll stop at 15 blocks, for a 3 x 5 wallhanging. One more block, then squaring up, sashing and a trip to the long-arm spa. So close to done!

More Harm Than Good?

Tried my hand at repotting the Venus Fly Trap from the big box store 

 

and I’m not sure if I did the poor thing more harm than good. 

The roots come wrapped in a ‘plug’ which growers use to make potting faster and easier. Eventually the paper/cloth needs to be removed so the roots can spread out.

 Plug paper 

I thought repotting now would be better - it’s already stressed from the nursery-to-store-to-me move - rather than re-traumatizing it later. 

 Rhizome looks nice and healthy.

Note for next time: soak the peat longer so it holds together and goes into the pot more cleanly.

 Before the repot

Hope it survives… They are fascinating plants and I may want more….

 Coco says ‘why are you disturbing me??’

Back to the Birds

I was hoping to get this Red-Shouldered Hawk done before the last bird pattern comes out tomorrow 

but with all the (really great) distractions from Cyrus and Leia staying with us, then planning for Leo and Jac* to visit, quilting has been on the back burner. 

At least I got it started?? 

All the color changes have made this slow going - I finished 6 (of 22) pieces in just over 4 hours. The feathers are almost done, hoping the body pieces are easier faster.

* Leo is staying 2 days but Jac will be here for FIVE WEEKS. So excited.